The past year was an exciting year for the Chinese equity market, as stock index hit a five-year-high at the end of 2014 and IPOs of Chinese e-commerce giants JD.com and Alibaba Group were finished. Underwriters are instrumental in stock market prosperity; they are in charge of promoting and selling of newly issued shares and follow-on share issuance. According to data from Thomson Reuters, a financial data provider, 25 underwriters covered 489 share issues of Chinese companies with proceeds amounting to $126 billion.

Here are the top 10 underwriters for Chinese companies, according to data provided by Thomson Reuters.

No 10 Haitong Securities Co Ltd

Number of issues: 30

Proceeds amount: $4.28 billion

A signboard of Haitong Securities in Xuchang city, central China's Henan province, Dec 7, 2014. [Photo/IC]